10 Status Updates On Iconic Horror Movie Franchises

4. A Nightmare On Elm Street

Freddy Krueger
New Line Cinema

Last Film Entry: A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

What's Going On? 

It's all been quiet on the Elm Street front for the past few years, with the rights to the property nowadays under the control of Wes Craven's estate. Of course, Craven wrote and directed the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, helped put together the story of Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, and returned to the director's chair for Wes Craven's New Nightmare in 1994.

Back in 2015, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema explored remaking A Nightmare on Elm Street for a second time; that coming on the back of the vanilla 2010 redo headlined by poor Jackie Earle Haley. Once those rights ended up with Craven's estate in 2019, pitches have been encouraged for both movies and TV shows set in and around the world of Freddy Krueger and Springwood.

Lights Out's David F. Sandberg and The Fall of the House of Usher's Mike Flanagan have both previously shown interest in doing something with the Elm Street property, but for now Krueger remains dormant and on the sidelines.

As for Robert Englund - who played Freddy in eight films - he's ruled himself out of any further outings as the nefarious child killer, telling Variety last year that he's "too old and thick to play Freddy now"... but offering up the fascinating suggestion of Kevin Bacon taking over the iconic role.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.